Clinical outcomes of a joint ICU and palliative care multidisciplinary rounding model: A retrospective cohort study

by Dov Shalman

Objectives

This retrospective cohort study assessed whether implementation of a joint inpatient palliative care (IPC) and ICU multidisciplinary rounding model affected clinical outcomes including ICU length of stay (LOS).

Methods

Beginning in October of 2018, an IPC physician joined the pre-existing ICU multidisciplinary rounds. Data were collected for ICU patients admitted during a 6-month period before this intervention and a 6-month period after the intervention. Data were extracted from an integrated electronic medical records (EMR) data system and compared by Wilcoxon and chi-square test for continuous and categorical variables respectively. Negative binomial regression was used to analyze the primary outcome measure, ICU LOS.

Results

Patients in the intervention group spent fewer days in the ICU (3.7 vs. 3.9 days, p = 0.05; RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.70–0.97, p = 0.02) and in the hospital (7.5 vs. 7.8 days, p Conclusion

The presented joint IPC-ICU multidisciplinary rounding model was associated with a statistically significant reduction in ICU and hospital LOS, but the clinical significance of this reduction is unclear.